The Telangana state legislative assembly has unanimously adopted a resolution opposing the Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Aajeevika Mission (Grameen) Act (VB G RAM G–2025), introduced by the NDA government at the Centre replacing the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA).
Telangana is the second state assembly after Punjab to pass a resolution against the new law. When the Punjab assembly had passed the resolution, Union agriculture minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has termed it “anti-federalism” and “violative of the Constitution”.
Introducing the resolution in the assembly, the Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy said the new Act would dilute the spirit, intent, and guarantees of the MGNREGA.
“The Centre should continue the MGNREGA in its present form to fulfil the aspirations and livelihood needs of wage-seeking rural families,” he said.
The Chief Minister said the rural employment guarantee programme was launched in 2005 by the then UPA government led by former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, with the objective of providing livelihood security to rural poor families.
“The legislation, which came into force on February 2, 2006, was designed to address poverty, unemployment, distress migration, exploitation of unskilled labour, and wage disparities between men and women, while ensuring inclusive growth across social groups,” he said, reading out the resolution.
Revanth Reddy said the core objective of the scheme was to provide a legal guarantee of at least 100 days of wage employment per year to every rural household at minimum wages.
“Over the past two decades, around 90 per cent of beneficiaries in Telangana have been from Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and Backward Classes, with women accounting for nearly 62 per cent of the workforce. Dalits, Adivasis, persons with disabilities, members of particularly vulnerable tribal groups, including Chenchus, and other economically weaker sections have been the principal beneficiaries of the programme,” he said.
Expressing grave concern over the proposed VB G RAM G–2025 legislation, the House observed that the new framework undermines the rights of the rural poor and weakens employment security for women and vulnerable sections who are heavily dependent on the existing employment guarantee scheme.
“Provisions which dilute the foundational principles of the current law would prove detrimental to poor households,” the resolution said.
It said the new legislation is against the interests and rights of the poor and strikes at the very objective of the employment guarantee legislation. By doing away with demand-driven planning of works, it undermines the core principle of the scheme. The assembly sought continuation of the demand-based approach.
It also noted that the new framework is detrimental to women workers.
Under the MGNREGA, women constitute nearly 62 per cent of the workforce. “The introduction of restrictive, normative allocations under the new law would reduce workdays, disproportionately affecting women from poor households,” the resolution said.
At present, the employment guarantee scheme is fully funded by the Union government. “The proposed shift to a 60:40 Centre–State funding ratio violates the spirit of federalism and imposes an additional financial burden on states,” the resolution observed.
The assembly also described the removal of Mahatma Gandhi’s name from the scheme as an attempt to dilute Gandhian values and legacy. “The mandatory imposition of a 60-day break during the agricultural season is unjust to landless rural labourers,” it said.
While the current scheme permits as many as 266 categories of works, the proposed law removes several labour-intensive activities such as land development. This, the resolution said, would adversely affect small and marginal farmers, Dalits, and tribal communities.
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